No deal. No steam.

Friday’s meeting between representatives of PKP Cargo and the Wielkopolska provincial government ended without agreement.

No further talks are scheduled until 18 April, and with no agreement, steam services will cease on 31 March.

Ol49-59 has the dubious honour of hauling the last service, the afternoon Wolsztyn to Leszno turn. After that the loco will return light engine to Wolsztyn with the return passenger working being completed by a diesel railcar.

Behind the Water Tower does not intend to sit idly by until 18 April. We encourage people to write to the main parties concerned and encourage them to work out a deal. There is time for written representations to be delivered before 18 April. A well written posted letter may carry more clout than an email and we would urge people to put pen to paper in the next few days so that it reaches the relevant parties before the meeting.

With elections looming our editorial team have already heard from people who have openly said that the current incumbents will not be receiving their vote given the current standoff. There may be an element of politics at play in all this. Who knows? The Wielkopolski Marszalek may be planning to pull a rabbit out of the hat and save the steam services as part of his election campaign. We hasten to add, that is pure speculation, however, if that is part of the strategy, it is a dangerous game to play.

If no agreement is reached on 18 April matters are likely to escalate up to Ministerial level. We would therefore encourage people to also write to:

Remenber what happened to narrow gauge lines at Smigiel or Gniezno when they where given into the hands of the local lord mayors and suffered under a complete lack of funding.
Since many years – let it be 15 years – I was afraid that some day the delay of long term investments would bring the daily workings to a standstil.
It didn`t happen because of the improvising skills of the Wolsztan staff, the business plan of the Wolszryn expierence mutual society abnnd

Remember what happened to the narrow gauge lines at Smigiel or Gniezno when PKP handed them to the local authorities. It was almost impossible to maintain a every day service.
Since many years – let it be a 15 years- I was afraid that the delay of long term investments would bring the daily workings at Wolsztyn to a standstill.
It didn`t happen yet because of the improvising skills of the Wolsztyn staff, the businerss plan of the Wolsztyn expierence mutual society and the protection of steam friendly elderly politicans and railway authorities.
Wolsztyn needs a national heritage status and some kind of umbrella organisation to move on. The problem is- how can you preserve the character of an ordinary every day working for common people while developing it to a top tourist attraction ?